There is always music playing with me. I am soaking in it. There is nothing I would rather do, if I am not playing music with my hands with other people, than to listen to music or talk about music. As I have been fortunate enough to live more than 50 years, the available library of All The Music Ever Recorded is what I have to choose from. Music is the wet in the water. The up in the sky. The reason math explains life. It is the voice of God that comes out of us and we all understand….
My younger daughter once posed the question. “Do you like American Music?” My first response was to to react badly to the thought of pop music, which I don’t care for much at this age. At this moment, there is some intoxicating gift playing from some other part of the world; Dobet Gnahoré, Fela Kuti, Sanjay Mishra.… and as I write, the music of Sean Blackman and Mickey Hart - both Americans playing the music of the world. And any minute, on any one of the music boxes in my house, something from either Miles Davis or Jerry Garcia is likely to pop up. America came from somewhere else. We all brought our songs. All American music started somewhere else. All music is World Music. Music is One Voice.
As a drummer and jazz lover, the story of how the music I love came to be born is a fascinating, easily tracked story, with brave and brilliant characters. The heros of my music are African. Their stories travel from Guinea and Ghana and Nigeria to England and Cuba and Latin America; to New York and San Francisco and Boise Idaho. I can hear through Jazz and Jams and rock and roll and blues who our parents are and how the world transcended and included its roots.
Then a beautiful song by Robbie Robertson called “Mahk Jchi (Heartbeat Drum Song).
That just twisted my root map all up. What about Aboriginal American music? Where is the music of the First Americans? Where is Native American Music in American music? I feel completely naive. Did we include American music in American music and I cannot hear it? Is there a motif or a signature somewhere in the songs of our day to day that include the first songs people played in this land? Did we let it slip away?
I could use some more information…..
I am sorry I have been out of touch, friends. It has been joyfully busy! I think this drum thing is catching on [after thousands of years!]
We’ve been busy with kids programs and adult classes; drum sessions for adults with traumatic brain injuries, kids & adults who come as they are. a great session going on at the boise Language Academy with the Refugee kids, great performances with The Fleet Street Klezmer Band, and for as long as we can, drumming on the sidewalk Saturdays at 10am on 6th & Main.
In a little bit, I will be back to the regular updates, class notes and pictures galore! Thanks for checking in. Let me know you’re still there and what I can offer you in your sacred, community, healthy, playful, exploratory journey into rhythm.
~failla-marie
Come as you are. Listen. Play what fits. Play with others as often as it fits in to your life. Improve with practice. Play to your ability. Be what you want to be in a group of people playing music. Of COURSE you’re good enough! Learn some common patterns to provide structure and improvise you ass off!
We did that very thing for a drum buddy’s company barbeque Thursday morning. This is what Baba’s Warm-up looked like played within that flexible framework:
This is a band of students. All of us. We have jobs and kids and grandkids and lives that do not revolve around intense study. We are playing. P L A Y I N G. We are not a performance troupe. We’re pretty much a bunch of ordinary citizens that get together each week, learn, share and play. None of us have the irrational sense of humor [or time or money] to quit our lives to become Rich And Famous Drummers [hahahaha!] So we just play comfortably and casually together. Sometimes we play in class. Sometimes we play with a few scattered observers. Sometimes we play in front of 300 people.
I used to get so nervous when I was going to perform. It was early in my drumming when I studied and studied and worked to get it right. I played with very talented drummers and we played ‘traditional’ Guinea music rather well. When I took a leave from study and moved myself into application, it eased up for me. I prepare myself and my crew for a performance. We work it. We make arrangements of songs we’ve practiced and many of those songs are from the Guinea tradition with which those of us in the room are most familiar. But when it comes time to ‘go out there’, we remind each other of how much pleasure we get playing music together. We enjoy each other’s company. We trust each other enough to be able to express our own voice in our own time. The drum was the common introduction, but the friendships developed have a deeper resonance….
I really want to thank the people who came and played with the most zest I have ever heard! I’d be proud to take you guys anywhere! Our ensemble today was Pam Lane, Erik & Cheryl Carruth, Don ‘the Don’ Silva, Candace Garmon and Luis Cubero. And the guests were blown away [yeah, yeah] by our remarkable didgeridoo playing friend Barry Sherman. Thank you URS for inviting us back to play.
I think music – playing music together – can change the world. If we will just listen to each other, we can create a song out of thin air.
It all starts with a pulse. Then, one at a time, we – as instruments – take our place and speak our truth. As we listen and play, [play... play... play...] the song will emerge. If we listen, we can hear what someone else wants to express. If we play, we can express things that cannot be said with words.
It’s all jazz. Playing music together – living and working and finding harmony together… it’s improvisation on a theme, and the theme is the moment and people right here, right now. [you must be present to win...]
It’s about being prepared to be spontaneous, alive and open to what’s happening right now.
playing…..
You already have everything you need to make beautiful music.
…Come as you are…
listen to this recording of “West Ganji” by Chicago Afrobeat Project
West Ganji 2
I am always saying, “Hold the Song.” This is a great example of what I mean.
They Start off clapping. The guitar comes in with a simple pattern that defines the framework – the pattern; the song. Da – dada. Da – dada. Da – dada da da. at :55 we get the drums coming in and the song builds. No one is adding more than enough. They’re introducing the rest of the players, and filling it out without filling it up. At 2:20, it starts to fill up! The initial pattern is no longer in the front but everyone is holding that pattern and playing it all over the place. Then at 3:03, it’s back.
This song also follows a great story structure, too. Ordinary world is that nice little intro pattern we were listening to. Then the adventure builds! New instruments show up, the plot thickens. As it continues, we get the rest of the story, and finish with a great resolve. We’ll get into that some other time….
